A Grim Day for a Small Town

Explosion at West Fertilizer Plant Registers as Magnitude 2.1 Earthquake

A massive explosion at a fertilizer plant here has left up to 15 people dead, a figure that may rise, said local police officials. More than 150 people have been treated for injuries. Miguel Bustillo has the latest.

Annotated Map of the Site

Photos: Plant Explosion

A plume of smoke rises from a fertilizer plant fire in West, Texas. AP

WEST, Texas—This small town just off I-35, known in central Texas as a good place to pull off the highway for Czech pastries, spent Thursday coming to grips with a landscape of flattened homes and diminishing hopes that friends and neighbors will be found alive in the aftermath of a devastating explosion.

The blast Wednesday night at a fertilizer plant here has left more than a dozen dead, and 150 injured. It destroyed a school and 75 or so homes—damaging a sizable portion of a tightknit town of 2,800 with a Czech heritage that stretches back generations.

ENLARGE

Firefighters conduct a search-and-rescue mission on Thursday at an apartment destroyed by the explosion at the West Fertilizer Co. plant in West, Texas, on Wednesday evening. The blast followed a fire at the facility.
Associated Press

The majority of the dead are believed to be first responders, who had raced to the scene to try to tame a fire at the plant, not knowing the mammoth blast was coming. The explosion had the force of a 2.1 magnitude earthquake, seismologists said.

Law-enforcement officials are still sifting through the rubble in search of survivors, but none are expected, said Tommy Muska, the town's mayor. Mr. Muska, who lost his own home on Wednesday, is a volunteer firefighter himself—as well as an insurance agent in town.

Industrial Disasters in the U.S.

Read more about fatal plant explosions and other industrial disasters in the United States since World War II.

"Our town is definitely hurting," he said. His office was flooded with insurance claims.

On Thursday, Texas Gov. Rick Perry said he asked the federal government for a disaster declaration to mobilize help for the town, about 80 miles south of Dallas. Gov. Perry said he had spoken with President Barack Obama, who was on his way to Boston for a memorial service for victims of Monday's bombing at the Boston Marathon.

The incident began with a fire at the West Fertilizer Co., a small privately owned plant on the edge of town, around 6 p.m. Wednesday. Volunteer firefighters tried to extinguish the blaze. About two hours later, a thunderous explosion ripped through the plant, sending a column of smoke hundreds of feet into the air and damaging buildings in a five-block radius.

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The slender town of West stretches only 20 blocks or so along the interstate. At its widest spot, it is about 10 blocks across.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said it would send investigators to determine if the fire and explosion was "accidental or criminal," spokesman George Semonick said. The U.S. Chemical Safety Board said that it was sending a "large investigation team" to the scene. State officials have set up air monitoring nearby.

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Sgt. William Patrick Swanton, a Waco police spokesman who is helping out the city's smaller neighbor, said Thursday there is no indication the blast was anything other than an industrial accident. The Texas Department of Public Safety said it could take up to six months to determine the cause of the fire.

The worst ever industrial accident in the U.S. was also caused by an explosion of ammonium nitrate, as was possibly the case here, and also took place in Texas. In that blast, in 1947, some 581 people died aboard a ship docked near Texas City.

Dan Halyburton, a spokesman for the American Red Cross who toured West, described the damage around town as unlike anything he had seen before. "It wasn't like a tornado or hurricane. It looked more like someone had taken a grinding wheel and just chewed up walls and roofs." When people return to their homes, he said, "It's going to be really traumatic."

ENLARGE

Among those killed was Captain Kenny Harris of the Dallas Fire-Rescue service. He lived in West and was trying to lend a hand at the time of the explosion, the service said.

Arthur Garland, owner of a West car-restoration business, said his sons played sports with Mr. Harris's three boys, who were considered some of the best athletes in a town that centered on baseball.

Mr. Harris was about to retire, Mr. Garland said, and had bought a boat on which he had planned to spend a lot of time.

"This is a great community and I don't have any doubt in my mind we will pull together," Mr. Garland said. "But we lost some good people."

Other confirmed dead included five West volunteer firefighters and four volunteer emergency medical technicians, according to the mayor.

"It makes me feel very sick," said Mr. Muska.

He said the local firefighters had never specifically prepared to battle a fertilizer-plant fire. "Every town in a rural area has one," he said. "It is a ticking time bomb that went off yesterday."

The former cotton-farming community has come through hard times before, but nothing like this, residents said. The community drew Czech immigrants, who kept their heritage alive through the generations with an annual festival and a bakery that specializes in traditional pastries. On Thursday, the Czech ambassador to the U.S. was on his way to West to offer support.

ENLARGE

For decades, the fertilizer plant in West has been a local fixture. As the town grew, homes and schools were built in closer proximity. A park is right across the street.

"It was always just there. You never thought about it," said Brian Sykora, who was raised in West.

He had just finished mowing his lawn in the evening calm when, he said, he felt a sudden whoosh of force. He looked north, he said, "and saw a huge mushroom cloud" over near his parents' house.

Mr. Sykora and his wife leapt into their truck and drove toward the cloud. His parents and brother were standing in their front yard, unharmed, watching their neighborhood burn. The windows of their home had been blown out. Pieces of their ceiling had fallen. Nearby, the school was ablaze, its gym roof collapsed.

"It is just numbing," said Mr. Sykora.

Zak Covar, executive director of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, said the facility had been in West since 1962. In 2004, it was required to receive two air-emissions permits. "In 2004, they were supposed to come in and get reauthorized," Mr. Covar said. "They failed to do so, and I hate to speculate why."

In 2006, an odor complaint was received by the environmental-quality commission. When it investigated, the state learned that West Fertilizer hadn't applied for the required permits, according to the commission. The issue was resolved when the facility applied for, and received, the permits. "The permit was the resolution," Mr. Covar said, and no fine was issued.

The difference between life and death came down to luck and timing, residents said. The mayor, Mr. Muska, was on his way to help his fellow volunteer firefighters, but wasn't there yet when the plant exploded. His wife, Lisa, was planting flowers at church; she returned to find their house leveled.

Many residents displaced from their homes gathered in the pews at the West Church of Christ, trading escape stories and sharing details about the whereabouts of friends, family and neighbors.

"Cellphones don't work so the only way to find out what happened to people is to ask folks around town," said Gary Parma, 50, who came to the church with his wife, Diane. The Parmas, who own Al's Cleaners in West, were on the deck of their home when they suddenly saw the house of a neighbor two doors down go up in smoke. Clad in their polka-dot and plaid pajamas, the Parmas grabbed their dog, Boo, and fled. They said they don't know whether their neighbors are alive or dead.

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